JHS QB Siders come a long way in short time

Like a linebacker on a blitz from the blindside, Vincent Siders never saw this coming.

Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Like a linebacker on a blitz from the blindside, Vincent Siders never saw this coming.

A year ago Siders was a freshman junior varsity running back at Jacksonville High School who hoped to make the varsity in 2012 and find a way on the field.

Confident he’d make the grade? Well, not quite.

“For varsity? No, not at all,” Siders said. “We have some good players. So it was going to be hard. But I knew I would get up there (eventually), but it would be hard.”

Not quite as hard as he may have envisioned, however.

This time a year ago Siders’ season was over as a JV player. A year later the 5-foot-9, 155-pound has helped lead the Cardinals (8-4) into a second-round showdown at Havelock (11-1) on Friday night in the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs

Talk about coming a long way in a short time. In fact, the speed of Siders’ ascent may only be matched by his speed afoot, where he has been clocked in just under 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

“Pretty quick,” coach Beau Williams said.

And pretty amazing given Siders not only never expected to be playing quarterback on varsity but had never actually played the position until offensive coordinator Chip Williams asked him during summer passing league to consider moving under center in the Cardinals’ option-oriented attack.

“I had never played quarterback in my life,” Siders said. “He came up to me and said, ‘We want you to be a quarterback.’”

Siders was surprised and thrilled because the move meant he was also moving up the varsity.

“I was still on junior varsity,” he said. “So that’s a big step.”

But one both Williams’ felt was warranted, especially given the spot was thrown in disarray a year ago after starting quarterback Patrick Childress was hurt and also that the Cardinals had no experienced players coming back at the spot this season.

“He’s athletic,” Beau Williams said. “Last year with the quarterback situation…, we just wanted to go ahead and start developing (a younger player) in case something were ever to happen. We started working over the summer and it just kind of took off for him.

While the Cardinals struggled on offense early, they have averaged 23 points a game in their last three outings as Siders has become more comfortable and the offense has matured as a unit.

Siders ran for two touchdowns and passed for a third in Jacksonville’s surprising 27-14 win at Rocky Mount in the opening round of the playoffs last Friday night.

For the season, Siders has rushed for 526 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 5.7 yards per carry. He also has thrown for 381 yards and 2 touchdowns while completing 33 of 89 passes, including a 6-for-8 night against Rocky Mount for 105 yards.

Beau Williams said Siders has just gotten a better “grasp of the offense” with each passing week.

“It’s just clicking for him,” he said. “He’s starting to see the field as it opens up, and he’s doing a good job with his reads. His throwing is getting better. He’s stepped up to the position and was basically the one to take it.”

Early on, Siders and sophomore Ryan Thompson split time at quarterback. Thompson was the better passer and Siders the better runner. But as the weeks went by Siders began to solidify his hold on the starting job.

Not bad for someone who expected to be playing wide receiver.

“They said they could make a quarterback out of me,” Siders said during an interview in the coaches’ dressing room after practice earlier this week. “So I just listened to them.”

Siders said the hardest adjustment was learning to read the defense, and that being the leader required of all quarterbacks wasn’t a big issue.

“It wasn’t that hard,” he said. “I was a leader on JV.”

Meanwhile, defenses have had their own challenges. They face a quarterback who doesn’t appear to lose any of the speed he displays on Jacksonville’s track team — he runs the 100 and 200 along with two relays — while wearing all his football equipment.

“I feel as loose as I do with pads and without them,” he said when asked why he felt he was as fast in full pads as in his track attire.

And while opponents have adjusted to his speed, it’s taken some time.

“They’re prepared for me now,” said Siders, who added he’s been timed at 4.48 in the 40. “On the field they say, ‘Watch No. 6. Watch option. Watch him.’”

Defenses aren’t alone in having to adjust. So have the Cardinal receivers, who are catching a ball with a rotation that’s different since Siders is a lefty while Thompson is a righty.

“Yeah, a lot of them say (there’s a different rotation),” Siders said. “Last game one of them said it looked like it was high and then it looked like it was low, and then he didn’t know what to do and it came straight at him.”

That’s also how Siders is approaching Friday night’s rematch with Havelock — straight on. The Rams beat the Cardinals 42-12 on Oct. 12 in Havelock, but Siders and the Cardinals will be out to upset the defending state champions.

“If we — how do I say it? — if we think we can play with them, then we’ll play with them,” he said. “But it’s really a mental thing. I’m not saying they’re not good because they really are. But we can play with them. … If we believe we can beat them, we’ll come out with the win.”